Some little tiger cubs grow up with their mothers, but this one born in Six Flags Marine World, a wild animal park in California, is raised entirely by human keepers. Lots of pictures show the infant tiger drinking from a bottle, taking a first bath, smooching and cuddling with her human keepers, walking on a leash, and joining the adult tigers in the exhibit. Easy-reading text offers somewhat stilted explanations of what the color photos show. “It is time for a checkup. The bright lights are scary. The tiger cub roars.” The author notes, “Tigers can be trained to do what people want them to do. But tigers cannot be tamed.” In an afterword, she states: “Many zoos and wild animal parks breed captive Bengal tigers. One day, some of these tigers may be returned to the wild.” Animal theme parks use this line to justify breeding and keeping endangered animals as exhibits, but conservationists may be saddened by this effort to turn wild animals into cute displays. (Nonfiction. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-57505-163-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The animal cast of this 19th-century counting rhyme has been subject to many variations; here, Vojtech (Tough Beginnings: How Baby Animals Survive, 2001, etc.) chooses a set and arranges them on oversized pages in intimate gatherings of smiling, smoothly painted single-parent families. She places them into an idyllic meadow scattered with appropriate numbers of bugs, flowers, and other items for enthusiastic young counters to enumerate. There’s no musical arrangement for the odd parent who doesn’t already know the tune, and despite mother beaver’s order to “beave,” her ten offspring are shown asleep—but children will find this rendition easier on the eye than the frantic Langstaff/Rojankovsky edition (1957, 1985), or Ezra Jack Keats’s self-consciously arty version (1971). (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7358-1596-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002
A deceptively simple exploration of opposites, illustrated by the relationship between a boy and his dog, Lucky. Milgrim’s (Patrick’s Dinosaurs on the Internet, 1999, etc.) cartoony illustrations depict a Charlie Brown–like round-headed boy and his genial brown dog as they demonstrate a series of opposites on succeeding double-page spreads. “Lucky gives / Lucky gets [kisses]” “Lucky’s sad / Lucky’s happy.” The two characters are surrounded by white space, with only the most necessary contextualizing details added. In the “Lucky’s hungry” picture, for instance, the viewer sees a table with a piece of cake and an excited Lucky; but when “Lucky’s full,” the dog is no longer to be seen, and the boy is left holding a carton of milk, his cake reduced to six crumbs. The “Lucky’s loud / Lucky’s quiet” spread features two nearly identical pictures of the boy doing his homework and Lucky barking (the dog’s mouth is open and little “bark” lines emerge, indicating noise)—the only difference is that in the “quiet” illustration, the boy is wearing earmuffs. Definitely not an introductory concept book, this offering clearly depends on a fairly sophisticated ability to decode the conventions of illustration. It is, however, a splendid primer in the art of visual irony, and its sly humor will have young readers chortling. It is also, of course, a love story; that the dog is not the only member of the pair who is lucky is amply illustrated on the endpapers, which reveal Lucky and his friend waking up together and then settling down for sleep in a happy heap on the boy’s bed. A winner, and not just for dog lovers. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84253-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
